9 minute read
51 STALLS
by CODY MITTANCK
THE PRACTICALITY OF TRAINING STALLS
Recently, I started supporting pilots in maneuvers training over the local lake. Over the years, I have mentored many pilots, but this was the first time I worked with such a diverse group in terms of age, skill level, and years flying. Despite the range of skill levels, the maunevers practice essentially became stall training for the majority of pilots. This experience got me thinking more about the stall— what’s the best way to train, should we expect to master it, how many stalls does it take to become proficient, and is it even a necessary skill for an XC pilot?
The main thing I’ve noticed is that getting comfortable with stalls takes longer than we think. On average, it takes a pilot 51 full stalls to get to the point where the stall becomes a tool that they can use with confidence. Until that point, using a stall “out in the wild” in an emergency situation has a 50/50 chance of making the situation worse.
I started saying “51 stalls” because when I said “50 stalls,” pilots interpreted that as a large, round number, potentially out of reach for what they felt they could invest in terms of time and money. But it does seem to be right around 50 for most pilots to make a breakthrough on stalls.
The first 10 stalls will feel extreme and scary; you will likely lose sleep over them, and you won’t be able to recount exactly what happened during the stall or why it went wrong. In the next 20, you’ll notice the fear subsiding, and you will be able to recognize the stages of the stall and the associated sensations. The whole maneuver will seem to be happening slower, and your brain can process it. For the next 20 stalls, you will be able to make corrections during the stall. Now you are anticipating what the wing will do and acting, not reacting.
Reaching 50 stalls is above and beyond what you will get in a single SIV course. With this in mind, it may serve pilots to redefine what SIV is. For most people, SIV is something they do once or twice at the beginning of their flying career or once every few years, despite their current number of stalls or their level of comfort with them.
I’ve begun referring to SIV as Maneuvers Training, which focuses on the training or practice of a maneuver until you have it dialed. You can also think of it as the next phase in your safety training. The first phase is a traditional SIV where you pull collapses and do your first spins and stalls under radio guidance. Maneuvers Training could be considered the next phase when you practice and refine these maneuvers with the aim of becoming comfortable performing them without an instructor on radio.
I recommend pilots get the stall dialed on an EN-B wing with a two-reserve open seat board harness (after you’re confident with the stall on the EN-B, then add your pod harness, but always train with two reserves). There is a massive safety difference between high and low aspect ratio wings, so why not be as safe as possible while learning and then step up to your hot wing after you have the maneuver dialed?
I’ve noticed that experienced XC pilots who fly EN-C/D wings have difficulty swallowing their ego and training on a low EN-B wing. Meanwhile, newer pilots with no (or less) ego start on a low EN-B and quickly surpass the experienced pilots in their maneuver skills.
I also recommend doing your training in a continuous block as much as you can. If you have to break it up into multiple years, just remember you can’t start where you left off. Even the best acro pilots will take a week to get back into the rhythm at the beginning of the season. In my own experience, once you build the foundation and get confident with the stall, it may then only take one or two stalls at the beginning of the season to regain your confidence.
For me, when I haven’t stalled my 2-liner in a while, the fear always sneaks back in. Fear will keep us alive, but at the beginning, for some, it may feel like an insurmountable wall. I’m a big believer in a progressive learning approach to help conquer fear. Maneuvers can be stepping blocks towards more advanced maneuvers. For example, energy management and familiarizing yourself with the shooting behavior of your wing is a prerequisite to the stall. When the wing restarts from a stall, you want to already have a feel for how hard it will shoot. If you end up in a spiral, you want to have practiced safely managing the energy with a controlled exit.
EN-B wings have high passive safety but can still do many traditional acro maneuvers well.
Photo by Alex Baker.
In addition to doing the prerequisite maneuvers, make sure you understand the phases of a stall before jumping right in. There are three major phases: entry, tail slide, and exit. You will hear many different names for stalls referring to different techniques, such as “stall-ball,” “acro stall,” “2-stage,” etc. Good stalls can require quite a bit of finesse and can change according to wing category. Because of this, it may seem that instructors/mentors are describing it differently.
Watch as many videos and read as many descriptions as you can so you have some reference before going to your training course. Each instructor may have a different approach, but it’s in your interest to have them explain why their approach is safe, what can go wrong, and what the proper reaction should be. The best advice I can give is to be able to envision the maneuvers before you try them. If you can visualize the maneuver and explain how to do it, that will help you get on the same page with your instructor/mentor regarding semantics.
Following a simple description of how to do the maneuver and trying it repeatedly until we get it may not be the best prescription for all pilots. It may be that we’ve been flying for years and developed bad habits, or perhaps we just don’t learn intuitively. We may want to try other approaches that can bring awareness to some fundamental mistakes we are making. Malin Lobb with Flyeo in Annecy, France takes a thoughtful approach focusing more on the skills an individual needs to learn to control their wing in any situation and less on checking off a list of maneuvers. His drills bring awareness to your position in the harness, arms, and brake range. Check out his interview on the Cloudbase Mayhem episode #133 for more details.
But is the stall actually important to learn? I did an informal survey with many of the world’s top pilots and instructors, including Russ Ogden and Jocky Sanderson. I asked if they felt it was important for XC pilots to have the stall dialed and how many times they personally had to use the stall in the “wild.”
I can boil down the responses to this: There is a wide range of innate ability in our sport, but for those pilots who pursue thermal flying or anything other than the most benign soaring sites, it behooves us to become comfortable and confident with the stall behavior of our wings and master it to the best of our individual ability. Each pilot said they had to use the stall at least once in the “wild.” Personally, I’ve had to stall or spin to remove a cravat or line-over during an XC flight many times.
The big question then remains whether this training can be done safely. Doing this training over water dramatically reduces the risk but doesn’t completely eliminate it. When I’m training over the water, I always remind myself that I need to avoid two scenarios: an autorotating spiral/SAT while twisted, and going into the canopy (getting gift-wrapped). Water’s surface tension is essentially as hard as the ground in these scenarios, so make sure you know exactly how a messed-up stall could lead to either of these.
The good news is these are not situations that happen spontaneously. They are the result of a cascade of bad reactions and bad timing. You need to be able to envision exactly what you’re going to do if, for instance, you get twisted up or if you miss catching the wing when it shoots on the exit. For example, I make a rule for myself when I’m training acro—in specific situations, if I’m out of control or about to get twisted up, I immediately go to tail slide.
While in tail slide, I check my altitude, how many twists I have, then throw my reserve if needed. In these situations, this keeps me out of the wing, keeps me from getting into a “locked-in spiral,” and keeps my hands from getting locked into a twist. I keep both toggles in one hand buried in my lap when I throw. Doing this keeps the wing in tail slide while the reserve opens. By doing this, I end up throwing my reserve more often, but I avoid the two fatal scenarios mentioned above.
I found that from tail slide, the reserve opens beautifully. Other instructors I have spoken with agree this is an ideal position to throw the reserve.
Still, we need to be careful about fixating on a particular scenario or generally overthinking when it is time to throw the reserve. As with everything mentioned here, talk it through with your instructor. It’s crucial to have an attentive instructor at this phase of training.
Always have a working radio just in case you need a calm, friendly reminder to get the laundry out. In my opinion, the most important experience a pilot can walk away with after stall training is the experience of throwing the reserve when it’s needed and without a reminder over the radio by the instructor. It is a priceless experience that will build your confidence and may save your life one day.
We have a wide range of abilities in our sport. Some pilots may take years of training to master the stall, while others get it down in a weekend. In my mind, the varying time and ability required doesn’t detract from the importance of pursuing stall training if you want to be an XC pilot. If you have not mastered the stall yet, during the training you will still have gained valuable experience recognizing the phases of a stall, confronting your fears, and, at the very least, your limitations. After all, the most important thing an XC pilot needs to stay safe is experience.
Gavin McClurg having fun with stalls over Lake Wallowa, Oregon.
